MTG Salvation

You know, for a long time, I've seen people say "Kaalia isn't good enough in Duel-Commander". Or "there's too much U in the format to make her work". And then I made my own Kaalia Primer (link in sig, of course) and some players, hungry to make her work, would ask me about that list and why it wasn't Duel-Commander ready. Well after a lot of contemplation and deliberation, I have come to a list for Kaalia, in the Duel-Commander format. It would seem, the best way to play this commander, is in the shell of a combo deck, i.e. Kaalia + Super-Awesome Fat is your "combo". Your whole game plan is devoted to setting up a board state that allows you to swing unhindered with Kaalia successfully. To this end, we don't need that many card slots devoted to creatures (only the most back breaking selections that win the game when they come out, or have the best utility may apply here) we instead just focus on disrupting the crap out of our opponent. I'm not going to go into excessive detail about playing the deck since, well, if you want that, my Primer is readily accessible for that kind of assistance. Ladies and gentlemen, I unveil to the community...Duel-Commander Kaalia!



Because somebody will ask, here is an explanation on why I chose that selection of targets;

1 Baneslayer Angel- She's still the queen of combat, a ten point swing is a hard race to win indeed.
1 Master of Cruelties- The "One Turn kill". 'Nuff said.
1 Thundermaw Hellkite- He clears the skies with haste for us.
1 Bloodgift Demon- Arena on a stick, we're also not terribly sad to hardcast this.
1 Rakdos the Defiler- The signature combo piece of a Kaalia deck.
1 Sire of Insanity- A Mind Twist while we bash for 6 - 8 plus a turn.
1 Steel Hellkite- One-sided Engineered Explosives is some great power.
1 Griselbrand- Uhm...the word "Duh" comes to mind.
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria- See Griselbrand's explanation.

6/13/13 Changes
-1 Rakdos's Return, +1 Rune-Scarred Demon- With Sire and the other plentiful discards in the deck we can remove "Discardball" for Tutour Demon, thus upping our tutour count by one. I've thought about this for a long time, and I think it's safe to add the tenth Kaalia target. This gets all the top tutours into this deck now.

Any comments/concerns/props feel free to post them here in this thread. <3 to hear others discuss Kaalia's prospects in the format finally!

Quote from Kamenitza

I like it. Not a big fan of Jeweled Amulet, Rakdos's Return and Abolish though. Why the two land destruction cards? And isn't Bob a bit too dangerous?

What do you think of Unburial Rites?

Amulet- This is the only rock we can play that enables t3 hasty Kaalia via Hall of the Bandit Lord. Also we can't play Mox Diamond because on thirty-six lands it is a tad too inconsistent in a deck without the help of mana dorks to accelerate.

Return- Because we can't play 'Twist in duel-commander. This is probably the next best thing, it scales well enough into late game, and is uncounterable off of Boseiju mana. It can help to finish someone if we need.

Abolish- Eh, it is what it is. "Free" Disenchant that sometimes costs three. I like that you can also Tithe for a Plains and then pitch it to kill something that needs to die. Also this costing zero mana sometimes is nice (what if you just played an Arena on t3 and someone Winter Orb'd you, for example?

Molten and Sinkhole- Sinkhole on the play is so strong on t2. Almost like a bye. Molten helps follow this up, but is also a shock later on so it can increase the clock (makes it slightly stronger than Sink late game).

Bob- He looks dangerous but that is why I drastically limited the threats we have, so the majority of the time we're gonna take 0 - 3. We do have a couple of lifelinkers too and if he gets too dangerous we can just off him.

Rites- Would you play a five mana reanimation spell with only nine targets in a ninety-nine card singleton deck? I wouldn't. It'd be a bit inconsistent. And truth be told, if we're doing our job properly, we shouldn't need to rez something.

Isn't Griselbrand banned in EDH?

Quote from Marder

Isn't Griselbrand banned in EDH?

*Looks above to thread tag*. Duel-Commander. Duel-Commander =/= the RC-Instituted Commander format that originated as a multiplayer format.

Quote from Marder

Isn't Griselbrand banned in EDH?

duel commander no,
normal commander yes.

Quote from Kamenitza

Yeah, I think you have a few not enough lands as it stands.

I tend to feel a bit flooded with the combination of lands and mana rocks I do have at times, so any more would make me feel...just not quite right. Though with Duel-Commander using that partial paris thing, I think it gets easier to keep playable hands. Or even worse, someone who would keep one land + land tax and just win. Plus we arguably don't need any mana after four since are primary strategy is Geddon + Commander.

I'm curious on how's her match ups against other beasts in the format.

Wouldn't Rune-Scarred Demon be a better choice than Sire of Insanity? It's pretty unfortunate that Sire has no evasion.

Quote from Virtus

Wouldn't Rune-Scarred Demon be a better choice than Sire of Insanity? It's pretty unfortunate that Sire has no evasion.

Well Rune-scarred is just a guy to set up the play. Sire comes down and just says "you don't get to sandbag answers, ever". Sire just brutally punishes control players. That said you might be able to swap Rune-scarred for Rakdos Return. Angel of despair is also a legit option, however I feel there is more than enough removal and ultimately Despair doesn't progress our game plan much -- just bashes for five and kills something. it's value sure, but not essential.

Quote from Kamenitza

Have you actually tested the deck?

Quote from Acardus

I'm curious on how's her match ups against other beasts in the format.

Unfortunately, I do not have a Duel-Commander venue near me with which to test this. I could get close in the commander league I host on MODO (a few differences such as I won't ban crucible or strip there, and I need to acquire a few cards on my account first: thundermaw, grisels, rakdos return, 'seize, & gamble.

However I'd <3 to hear other's reports as well, because I feel this can be a community effort to get this commander represented, especially now that those same UW decks can't rely on their Phantasmal Images to kill our commander.

Quote from 3drinks

Unfortunately, I do not have a Duel-Commander venue near me with which to test this. I could get close in the commander league I host on MODO (a few differences such as I won't ban crucible or strip there, and I need to acquire a few cards on my account first: thundermaw, grisels, rakdos return, 'seize, & gamble.

It occurs to me I can't test this via MODO since it doesn't support Duel-Commander as a format and playing by the RC-instituted rule set means he is illegal to put into a deck. And since I don't do the free programmes, I can only rely on others to test this particular list in those said venues. :/

Thank you for the contribution. I have always liked Kaalia as a card, and it's nice to see you started off your post addressing why Kaalia can't work in duel commander. I think a more appropriate way of looking at it is, of course kaalia can work, it's not that there is too much control or whatever, but rather is kaalia better than the other alternatives (read: ZUR!) and the answer is just simply no. If asked why play kaalia over zur, in an edric-less meta, is there a good answer to that question? Or even better, why play her over Jhoira who is similar (need a fatty in hand) but plays blue. Jhoira is played at least on cockatrice. I do like the inclusion of both blasts though - that's a step in the right direction.

Quote from kwiznek

Thank you for the contribution. I have always liked Kaalia as a card, and it's nice to see you started off your post addressing why Kaalia can't work in duel commander. I think a more appropriate way of looking at it is, of course kaalia can work, it's not that there is too much control or whatever, but rather is kaalia better than the other alternatives (read: ZUR!) and the answer is just simply no. If asked why play kaalia over zur, in an edric-less meta, is there a good answer to that question? Or even better, why play her over Jhoira who is similar (need a fatty in hand) but plays blue. Jhoira is played at least on cockatrice. I do like the inclusion of both blasts though - that's a step in the right direction.

You're welcome. I am very passionate for Kaalia as evidenced by my Primer for traditional commander, so it makes me happy if I can make her work for someone else, especially in an alternate format such as DC.

I feel comparing Kaalia to Zur to Jhoira is like apples to oranges to bananas man. Zur likes to tutour for enchantments out of the deck, and Kaalia likes to accelerate the clock ten-fold with guys from the hand. Jhoira is a whole other beast, but still gives opponent's four turns to get ready for w/e the impending massive effect is. But the three commanders offer different and interesting ways to accomplish the primary goal: circumventing of converted mana costs. And as such, I feel all three can be interesting commander choices for a variety of DC players to consider.

6/13/13 Changes
-1 Rakdos's Return, +1 Rune-Scarred Demon- With Sire and the other plentiful discards in the deck we can remove "Discardball" for Tutour Demon, thus upping our tutour count by one. I've thought about this for a long time, and I think it's safe to add the tenth Kaalia target. This gets all the top tutours into this deck now.

Hello Traildemon!

There is another topic(PRIMER) full of competitive lists and discussion:

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/forum-1-vs-1-commander-decklists/206319-traditional-commander-kaalia-of-the-vast?page=147#c3684